Two Masks
by FangIsFexcellent
Summary: Though the fervent hatred has died down, relationships between Gryffindors and Slytherins are virtually taboo. A masquerade ball and a red-haired girl might be about to change that for Scorpius Malfoy...Oneshot.


**Scorose is my favorite HP pairing EVER, and it's Christmas, so I wrote this random little oneshot! D'awwwww. **

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Ah, Christmas!

At least that was the sentiment shared by most of Hogwarts on the evening of December 25. Scorpius sat in the corner of the Slytherin common room, absently turning the rug different colors with lazy flicks of his wand, pink, green, white, black...the next time he turned the wand of ash in his long, pale fingers, the threads turned to scarlet, and he jerked the wand upward immediately, severing the connection.

"Gryffindor colors, Scorp?" Elias Zabini lounged across a sofa, eating a sweet his father had sent in his rather large package—the Italian family was wealthy, as everyone knew. Scorpius just shook his head in annoyance and twirled his wand between his fingers, watching as heatless emerald green sparks landed on the leg of his trousers. "I think I've an idea who's on your brain, then."

"Oh, shut up, El," Scorpius said, flicking his silver eyes over his fellow Slytherin derogatorily, then attempted a change of subject. "You've heard about Vincent and that Ravenclaw girl, I expect?"

"Yes, I have, but don't go changing the subject on me. Aren't the Weasleys and the Malfoys sort of sworn enemies?" Elias sat up and jabbed Scorpius in the arm with his own wand.

"We used to be. Now it's just kind of a tense relationship...off-limits kind of thing. That hasn't changed."

"So, what? Me finding you looking at that Weasley girl's picture in last year's yearbook was just you looking at her and saying in your head how much you hated her?" Elias grinned, thinking he had triumphed and waiting for Scorpius to at least blush, add some color to that pale skin that so matched his father's. The two had been best pals since before Hogwarts, being as Draco and Blaise were such good friends, even after the Battle of Hogwarts.

However, Scorpius just smiled without showing his even teeth, staying as cool as ever. "I was gaping at your picture, Elias, for you are right next to her, you know, and you are so extraordinarily ugly." Elias roared with laughter, and the tense atmosphere between the friends was broken at last. Hogwarts, at the request of some of the parents who wished they would have had records of their classmates, had begun the Muggle tradition of making yearbooks for the students. However, the yearbooks were nothing like the ones that Muggle high schools gave out—they moved, made noise, shot things out of them if you angered one of the pictures, and changed colors based on the day and weather.

"I do admit my fifth year picture left a lot to be desired," Elias chuckled. "Yours did too, if I recall."

"Mine was just fine," Scorpius said in a mock-hurt tone.

"Yes, Deliah Midgen said you looked quite desirable."

Scorpius made a gagging motion at the mention of the spotty Hufflepuff, but he was laughing. The lines between the houses were about nine times more blurred than they had been in the generation previous to theirs—Gryffindors and Slytherins were still on the extreme ends of the social scale, but they rubbed along comfortably enough. It was unheard of and, without being directly said, forbidden for a Gryffindor and a Slytherin to have a romantic relationship, however, and this was the source of Elias's insistent teasing about the Weasley girl: Rose Weasley, to be exact.

She had the looks, she had the brains, she had the quick wit that was sharp enough to make anyone scared of her, while at the same time drawn. Scorpius was..._intrigued _by her. Yes, that was the right word for the feelings that assailed him whenever she was near him, scratching at a roll of parchment with a quill in her tiny, neat handwriting, her auburn hair falling over her face, a wild but somehow sleek tangle of strands that always seemed to—

Scorpius cleared his throat and set to lifting a biscuit from the tin held by Elias, managing to snatch a Ginger Newt before the red-and-green tin was jerked away and Elias began to wrestle him on the couch, not really caring about the stolen food, but the fact that Scorpius could be so quiet while stealing. Moriah Parkinson came and sat by them—she was another of Scorpius's friends, his distant cousin, he had heard...but she couldn't be more different in looks than him. Whereas Scorpius had the same white-blonde hair as his father, a tall, slender build, and pale skin, Moriah had a liquid mass of laser-straight black hair that flowed down her back, cut in a straight fringe over her inquisitive green eyes, shorter than him by about two heads and, while thin, not muscular as he was.

"Something I need to know, boys?" Moriah drawled with just the right delivery for the pair to catch all the hidden implications of what she had said at once.

"Of course," replied Scorpius. "Jealous?" She just laughed in his face, absently playing with a smooth strand of hair.

"A little birdie said something about a Weasley?" she asked him, sitting on the arm of the chair he was resting in and poking him on the head. "Care to explain?"

"Nothing to explain." Scorpius maintained his careful façade of denial and coolness. "Elias is a dirty liar."

"Well, we knew that, didn't we?" said Scorpius. Elias threw back his dark head of hair and put his hand to his heart like he was deeply wounded by the insult, all the while filling the immediate area with his rich laugh.

"Going to the ball tonight, then?" Moriah asked them with a wicked sparkle in her eye. She tried to conceal it, but Scorpius could tell that she was just as excited about the Christmas Rose Ball as all of the girls in fourth year and above. She wasn't nearly as obvious about it, however, going to Hogsmeade only once for a dress that was simple, black with emerald-green embroidering around the edges, and she wasn't doing anything to her hair, or at least nothing she had told the boys about.

She produced a sleek emerald mask, sparkled with black glitter, and tossed it at them. "What's this for?" Elias asked, holding it up.

"You are such bimbos," Moriah said, rolling her eyes dramatically. "Did you even _look _at the advert for it on the message board?"

Scorpius and Elias turned as one to see a dusky-pink colored poster tacked over most of the message board, with a picture of a mask and a rose underneath it. Silver letters proclaimed "HOGWARTS CHRISTMAS ROSE BALL! DECEMBER 25 IN THE GREAT HALL, EIGHT TO MIDNIGHT. MASQUERADE! WEAR YOUR BEST AND YOUR BRIGHTEST MASKS." A scribbled note at the bottom that was in McGonagall's handwriting read "Remember that all conduct must remain appropriate."

"Oh," Scorpius said for both of them. "I don't have a mask."

"Same," added Elias, turning back to Moriah. The evil glint returned to her eyes, and she rummaged in a bag without breaking her stare at them. Scorpius began to feel apprehensive at what was going to be in her hand when she withdrew it...

"Ta da!" Moriah proclaimed, pulling two masks out of the bag, separating them, and holding them up. "Remember it was me who picked out your dress robes, boys, so I know exactly what to do with you." Both friends winced as they remembered the shopping trip, being forced into several different pairs before Moriah finally pronounced them passable. Their masks matched the robes almost exactly. Elias's was pale gold with dramatic black lines, a few proud gold feathers attached to one side. Elias turned it over, whistling softly.

"This is kind of cool," he said, trying it on.

"It certainly helps your appearance," Scorpius told him. "Your face is now covered." The bit of Elias's face they could see underneath the majestic fabric split into a derisive grin.

"Try yours, go on then. I've had enough of looking at your mug." Elias tugged Scorpius's mask out of Moriah's hands and shoved it into his friend's chest. Scorpius examined the all-black mask. It was sleek and beautiful, and when he turned it in his hands he noticed purple highlights that ran through it when the firelight fell on the fabric. It would cover his entire forehead, his nose, and part of his mouth.

"I enchanted this one," Moriah said to him. "You don't have to strap it to your face—just put it up to your eyes and it'll mold itself to your features. Didn't want an elastic band ungelling your hair."

Scorpius gave a combination grin-dagger look at Moriah and lifted the mask to his face, and as she said, it fitted itself to him like it was magnetized, the eyeholes widening slightly so that he had his full range of vision. It felt smooth and cool against his pale cheek. Elias whistled softly.

"Damn, Scor," he said. "I hate to admit it, but you're gonna have the ladies after you on this one. That mask is...wow."

"You like it?" Scorpius teased him. "Maybe you'd like to go as my date, then?"

"You wish, freak. I forgot to mention that the ladies _and _the gentleman will be all over me. That's how amazingly sexy I am." Elias struck a pose while still sitting down, and the result made both Scorpius and Moriah slap their hands to their foreheads and laugh in astonishment.

"You are beautiful," Scorpius assured him.

"Indeed," chuckled Moriah. "But he's right, Scor. That mask is hot." When he looked at her surprised through his mask, she rolled her eyes and waved a hand. "Completely objective, of course, no romantic attachments. I've known you since you still peed yourself, Scor. Lighten up." She saw him roll his own silver eyes under the mask, and put her own on. "What do you think? Do I look like Zorro?"

"Who's that?" Elias asked.

"Ah, I've forgotten you don't take N.E.W.T Muggle Studies," Moriah said. Whereas in their parents' generation, Slytherins had been known for their Muggle and Muggle-born vendetta, but that had lifted mostly with the fall of the Dark Lord. Many of the Slytherins did indeed take Muggle Studies, though it had never interested Scorpius and Elias very much. Moriah loved it, and wanted to go into a career where it would be useful. "Well, never mind then. Do I look sexy?"

"Very," Scorpius told her, and she smiled in appreciation.

"Well, the ball's in an hour," she said, gathering her bag and turning, calling over her shoulder, "I'll be along...By the way, I'm going out with Benjamin Boot!" She ran up the girls' staircase before either boy had time to say a word, leaving them staring at each other in puzzlement.

"Did she say—?"

"The Hufflepuff?"

"I think so..."

Moriah always had been a rebel, after all.

The common room was almost empty by this time. Scorpius, having just noticed this, looked around and then gestured to Elias. "I guess everyone's getting ready for the ball...we should probably head up and do the same." The two took off their masks and headed up the stairs.

The boys' dormitory was bustling: Vincent Goyle, Leo Black, and William Greengrass were all putting on their dress robes, talking about who they were going to the ball with. Vincent was in the process of being teased by William about his date, a girl named Mary Bones in Ravenclaw. Scorpius dug his still-store-folded dress robes out of his trunk and held them up in slight distaste. At least they were all-black, like his school robes, but they were sleeker, shinier, and cut much differently, fitting tighter to his body and falling straight to the floor. Several whorls of the darkest purple thread waved around the hem. They were attractive, Scorpius knew, and God knew he liked to look attractive, but for some reason he was not looking forward to the night.

Elias had already put on his own robes on, pale gold and cuffed with black. It was an interesting but pleasant effect, ruined indefinitely by the boy strutting around the dormitory with his hips stuck out, causing everyone else to gag and shout in laughter at the same time. Scorpius pulled his own robes on, slipping on his mask last and smoothing his hair. The same teasing routine went on with him, but thankfully Elias didn't wrongly accuse him of being in love with Rose Weasley. God knows they would have all had a field day with that one. Scorpius winced at the thought, especially because there was no way he could ever think of Rose that way.

The boys went down to the Great Hall together, until two of their number, Vincent and Leo, split off to go and meet their dates, and then William left to go and find a girl to dance with. Elias went to get a drink, and Scorpius was left wandering the barren dance floor alone. He didn't know who anyone was, except for the boys in his dorm, as well as Moriah, talking with a boy in navy robes that must have been Benjamin Boot. She gave Scorpius a discreet wave and a smile, then went back to chatting with him.

"That's a scary mask," said a voice to the left of Scorpius.

He looked around instinctively, and his eyes fell on a girl who was dressed in a dark, forest green, her matching mask drawn over her red curls, looking at him expectantly. It was dark on the dance floor, and he couldn't see her very well through the magical strobe lights.

"Oh," he said. "Thanks? I think?" He couldn't hear her voice tone over the music, and it seemed that she had the same problem—her head was tilted toward him to better hear his words, and she took too long to respond, probably trying to work out what he had said.

"Do you have a date?" she asked, somehow managing to make it sound like a casual question. Scorpius felt his mind slip out of his control for a second, spiraling downward into blurred incoherence, but he forced himself to focus on one sequin of the girl's mask.

"No," he said. "And you?" She was thin, shorter than him, and pretty from what he could see of her, which wasn't much.

"Um, yeah, but he ditched me for some Ravenclaw," she said, and he could almost visualize her rolling her eyes. "So I guess not anymore."

Silence fell for a few seconds, and Scorpius could feel a question struggling in the back of his throat, and tried to push it down, but as soon as he opened his mouth to try to swallow it down, it came spilling out.

"Um...want to dance?"

He couldn't _believe _what he had just done. Surely she was going to think him a perv and a freak now...he'd just wrecked any chance he had of getting to know the girl. But she just tilted her head and gave him a mysterious smile.

"No strings attached?"

"None whatsoever," Scorpius found himself answering. Dammit, dammit! What on earth was he doing? He was never this smooth with girls, ever, preferring to just ignore them all together. What was wrong with him?

"Alright then," the girl answered, a little breathlessly.

A Weird Sisters song came on, and most people recognized the old tune. It had been popular in the days of their parents, and it was catchy if not outdated. The girl drew herself closer to Scorpius, putting her arms around his neck, looking up at him through her mask, and he put his on her waist. And once and for all, his mind spiraled out of control.

The song passed blearily, and all too soon it was over, and then another came on, and then another. Scorpius and the unknown girl kept dancing, almost not noticing the music keeping their rhythm. It was too dark to see her eyes, but he knew that they were looking into his the entire time, and he kept his head downward, looking toward the eyeholes of her own mask.

It was stiflingly hot on the floor, and Scorpius finally led the girl off, pouring two glasses of chilled cider and handing one to her, which she knocked back in one, making him laugh. It was still too hot.

"Do you want to go for a walk?" Obviously, the girl in green had been sharing his sentiments of the atmosphere. She fanned herself with a small hand and pulled her hair away from her neck, then let it drop back in its rolling waves that reached down to the small of her back.

Scorpius nodded, his throat dry despite the cider...there would not be the cover of people and noise out on the grounds strung with fairy lights. He knew some people of Hogwarts still had a grudge against the Malfoy family...what if she was one of them and she found out? What if...?

The girl took his hand and he couldn't remember for the life of him what he had been thinking about.

She made to let go when they made their way out onto the grounds of Hogwarts, heading down the path toward the lake, which was smooth and glassy black in the darkness, reflecting the few stars that Scorpius could see. But Scorpius kept it in his own, and after a tense moment she slipped it back fully inside his fingers. The hands were so tiny, his nearly encased hers, and he smiled to himself.

"What?" She had noticed the small lip curve.

"Your hands," he murmured, turning one over in his own. "They're so..."

"Small? Yeah. I get that a lot." Her tone was exasperated and conspiratorial, like they were sharing a secret. Scorpius liked that she used it with him. "It's bloody annoying to write essays, they cramp up in a millisecond."

They laughed then, and it felt right.

A few stone benches stood by the lake, and the girl sat down on one, pulling Scorpius down next to her. The night air was cold, but he didn't notice it overmuch as he stared out at the water. A ripple went through it. _Giant squid, _he thought vaguely. The creature hadn't died yet, not even after all these years.

"You know, I'm glad I found you." The girl was speaking to the lake, but her words were obviously meant for Scorpius and Scorpius alone.

"Yeah," he said, then internally smacked his forehead. What kind of response was that? "It was definitely better than standing around like an idiot while my friends suck face with their dates."

She giggled. "You too, huh? All the girls were just gushing like hell about the width of their guy's shoulders. I mean, shoulders! No one cares about shoulders!" Her hands waved dramatically as she spoke, and Scorpius smiled at her small rant.

"I certainly don't," he said. "I can see how that would get dull."

"It's worse than Binns," she sighed, picking up a rock and turning it over in her hands. "Did you know he was here—"

"In our parents' days? Yes," Scorpius finished. "I wonder if he was any more exciting than he is now."

"My mum and dad have told me about him," she said, throwing the rock into the lake. "My mum says the only reason Dad passed the exams is because he borrowed her notes—she was apparently the only one that could actually pay attention in the class."

"Sounds as if he hasn't changed then. Old bat."

"Obviously not," she said through her laughter. Scorpius, on a whim, took one of her waving hands again, and she looked at him, through her mask, surprised, and then didn't break her gaze. She examined him, examined his pale blonde hair, all-black robes pulled tightly over his chest muscles, then his stomach and boots. He stayed tense and still, waiting for her to recognize him, jump up, and run away in a huff, but it didn't happen. A shiver ran down his spine, and he wasn't under the impression it stemmed from the cold.

"I—" he started.

"Ssh," she said, hooking a finger under his mask. A wave of terror gripped him and he tightened his fingers around her hand. "Don't worry...here." And she guided his hand up to her own mask. They were really going to take them off, Scorpius realized, and though he wanted to see who she was, it scared him for her to find out the same about him.

Before he could say another word, she had gently removed the sleek black face covering, and in the same moment, he slid her green mask over her red hair. When everything was discarded and Scorpius looked back into her face...

Rose Weasley stared back at him.

This time it was she who said "I—" but he had already turned his face away from her, cursing softly under his breath. It couldn't be her...couldn't be Rose. But it _was. _And she kept looking at him steadily with her eyes, which he could now see were a light blue, with streaks of chocolate brown shot through them. Rose Weasley, his supposed enemy at Hogwarts! Bookworm, prankster, lively, crazy Rose. _Gryffindor _Rose.

"Sc...Scorpius?" she said softly, as if for confirmation.

Her name choked his throat, but he pushed it out. _"Rose." _

"I...I'm sorry, I should go," she said, getting up and grabbing her mask off of the hard ground, made cold with the frost that was already starting to accumulate. Scorpius's hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, and she looked back, surprised.

He had surprised himself! Why hadn't he let her go? And his mind was so damn _blank, _swirling white mist seeming to overtake all coherent thought, and as he stood he tried to figure out something to say, but no words would form in his head, and oh _God _he had to do something soon...

A muffled groan of frustration escaped his lips as his tortured silver eyes bored down into hers, and then all of a sudden instinct took him over and he jerked her hand forward, such that when she stumbled, her head flew up and his mouth met hers.

For one second, he thought, he _knew _she was going to resist him, pull back and slap him with those tiny hands of hers, then storm back up to the castle. _Knew _she was going to go and tell all of those insipid, shoulder-obsessed girls about how Scorpius Malfoy, the disgusting pureblood had kissed her, then go Scourgify her mouth until her lips were bruised.

He felt the mask drop at their feet as she angled her head upward, craning her neck to meet his mouth with more of hers.

The only hazy thought that crossed Scorpius's mind in the next second was _What the hell is going on? _but soon that was gone too, and all that was left was the final slide into insanity, where flobberworms flew and Slytherins kissed Gryffindors and Rose Weasley sighed under him with her hand gripping the collar of his dress robes.

When they finally broke apart, Rose's scared, wide eyes gazed up into his own disbelieving silver ones. She bit her bottom lip without taking her eyes off him, and electric silence crackled between them. When she finally opened her full, slightly wet lips to speak, Scorpius braced himself.

"Well, that was unexpected," she said.

It was such an odd thing to say, Scorpius started laughing, bending his blonde head and snorting in amusement. "You realize that we've just become the biggest scandal of the year," he told her when he next raised it, and she grinned widely.

"I'm well aware."

He offered his hand to her then, and they walked back up to the castle, sparkling with lights, together.

Two masks were left abandoned on the stone bench by the watchful lake.


End file.
